Transcending Beyond Tradition: Black Artists and Exploration of Music Genres
Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter SZA made headlines where she denounced her being labeled solely as an R&B artist.
Writer Karan Singh, in her 2024 article for Hip-Hop DX, writes, “in an interview with Dazed published on Wednesday (May 1), the 34-year-old superstar discussed her image in the public eye and how she has been marketed in a way that doesn’t justly reflect her material. The only reason I’m defined as an R&B artist is because I’m Black… it’s almost a little reductive because it doesn’t allow space to be anything else or try anything else. Justin Bieber is not considered an R&B artist; he is a pop artist who makes R&B, folk music, or whatever his heart desires…I simply just want to be allowed the same opportunity to make whatever I want without a label, [without it being] based on the color of my skin, or the crew that I run with, or the beats that I choose.’”
Black artists have been transcending traditional musical genres for quite some time. In fact, Black artists have defined what musical genres have been, from R&B, to Country, Rock & Roll, Jazz, and Soul. Artists such as SZA but also artists like Beyonce, Andre 3000, and Lil Jon from rap group Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz, have recently been the crop of Black artists that are redefining the musical genres that they have become known for.
Grammy Award winning rapper Lil Jon of the Atlanta based southern rap group Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz made headlines this year when he released two guided meditation albums, Total Meditations, in February, and Manifest Abundance: Affirmations of Personal Growth in May. Known for hits such as “Yeah” with Usher and “Turn Down For What?” with DJ Snake, he spoke of his own anxiety as a catalyst for him venturing into meditation music.
In an interview with NPR, the Atlanta born rapper stated, “Yeah, it was anxiety and a little stress from a lot hitting me at the same time: turning 50, looking at my life, looking at my marriage and a lot of things, and trying to move on and get through those things. I would meditate before I go on stage or take little breaths or just take some time for myself. But I found, at this particular point in my life, I really need to go into it a little deeper. And so I would, I would meditate every day and I would say my affirmations every day, and all of that would quiet me — calm those crazy thoughts and emotions that I would have and give me some peace.”
Like embracing other musical genres, peace is not something new but the embrace and the redefinition of peace is becoming more common among Black/African American people of color. Writer Michelle Boorstein, in her 2022 article for The Washington Post writes, “According to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 9.3 percent of non-Hispanic Black Americans did yoga in 2017 and 13.5 percent meditated. The overall use of these practices is up sharply since 2012, when the CDC said the percent of Americans who did yoga went from 9.5 percent to 14.3 and meditation from 4.1 percent to 14.2 percent.”
What is demonstrated from Black artists embracing non-traditional musical genres and non-traditional modes of relaxation is that the mere color of one’s skin does not define anything.
